SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- Yolanda Marodi, who is accused of killing her wife, Cal Fire Captain Rebecca Marodi, is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday at a San Diego hospital on murder charges.
Yolanda Marodi, 53, was arrested in Mexicali on March 22 after being on the run for nearly five weeks. Yolanda is accused of stabbing Rebecca to death at their Ramona home on the night of Feb. 17.
Yolanda Marodi is expected to enter a not guilty plea for the first-degree murder charges -- the first step in a case that could potentially take years to resolve.
The arraignment comes a day after a celebration of life event was held for Rebecca Marodi in Temecula. The services were standing-room-only, with family, friends, and colleagues in attendance.
ABC 10News reporter Laura Acevado was the only reporter allowed at the services.
Following Wednesday’s arraignment, the case's next key date will be the preliminary hearing. This is where evidence in the case will be laid out, including eyewitness testimony and law enforcement testimony. That will also be the opportunity for the defense to test the prosecution in their argument.
ABC 10News spoke to criminal defense attorney David Shapiro to discuss some of the key points of the case and how prosecutors and defense attorneys will look to proceed.
An arrest warrant from the San Diego Superior Court laid out details about what law enforcement officials said happened leading up the night Marodi was killed.
According to the warrant, Rebecca reportedly told Yolanda she was leaving her and ending their marriage.
A week after Rebecca reportedly told Yolanda about the divorce, surveillance video at their home caught Yolanda allegedly chasing Rebecca across the front yard. Because the footage shows there was an altercation between Rebecca and Yolanda, a defense attorney will look to argue self-defense.
"From a defense attorney's perspective, we're looking at something like that even if the defendant or the accused did in fact do what they were accused of doing; the issue is do they have a viable self-defense claim under law and can the prosecutor rule that out?" Shapiro said "A lot of times in these quarrels between whether it's spouses or significant others or exes, sometimes that is a viable defense that it could be a self-defense argument."
At one point in the surveillance video, a voice believed to be Rebecca's is heard yelling, "Yolanda! Please ... I don't want to die!"
Rebecca then appears in the video with what looks like blood on her back.
A voice believed to be Yolanda's replied, "You should have thought of that before."
The two entered the home, and Rebecca is not seen again in the footage.
"In this instance, what we don't like from a defense standpoint or what a defense attorney probably wouldn't like would be the Ring camera where you have Rebecca Marodi pleading for her life," Shapiro explained. "It doesn't necessarily always reconcile with the viable self-defense argument."
Shapiro feels the Ring video is one of the strongest pieces of evidence for the prosecutors.
"What we'll see over time, you know, cell phone evidence, search forensic, searches of emails of computers, of cell phones, of photos. Who, if anyone, Yolanda was speaking to before, during, and after she is alleged to have taken the life of her wife," Shapiro said. "That Ring camera is pretty compelling, at least that Yolanda was responsible for the death, or at the very least that immediately preceding the death of Rebecca, that there was some sort of physical altercation between the spouses."
This isn't the first time Marodi has been arrested for a violent crime. In 2003, Marodi pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter after stabbing her ex-husband to death. Her ex-husband reportedly told Marodi that he was ending their marriage.
"That is something that could very well play an important factor moving forward because if Ms. Marodi is going to put forward a defense of self-defense, the prosecutor is going to try and do everything they can to get in that prior conviction," Shapiro said.
Shapiro believes this can leave defense attorneys in a tough position to continue with a viable argument for self-defense.
“As defense attorneys, we may have a viable option, but a judge will say, ‘Hey, if you go through that door, that's now going to open up all this other evidence,’" Shapiro said. "That's going to be important. How that prior conviction, those circumstances play, and what doors they potentially may close or at least get closer to closing as relates to her viable defenses, if any exist.”
Yolanda’s previous conviction will not affect whether she is held legally responsible for the murder of Rebecca. If Yolanda is found guilty, Shapiro said her prior conviction could lead to her sentence being doubled.
